Monday, July 17, 2006

My 2nd-favorite Economist

Joseph Stiglitz, bane of the IMF and globalization realist, has proposed a solution to the climate crisis, even if the US doesn't step up: Other, Kyoto-complying countries should simply slap a tariff on American goods which are illegally being subsidized by American fossil-fuel subsidies.

This wouldn't be the end of Stiglitz' plan, but it's nice to see a serious economist point out the logical endgame here: Neither the Americans nor the Canadian government can abandon the Earth without paying a consequence. Of course, that was already the case, but this time we're talking about something serious - money!

In that same Gristmill post, some genius points out the disparity between the 1% doctrine in the case of a terrorist attack (WAR WAR WAR!) and what we could call the 99% doctrine of the Bush Administration on climate change (even if there's a 99% chance we're killing the planet, I refuse to do anything to stop.) In effect, Cheney has endorsed the long-cherished precautionary principle, except he's inverted and perverted it: While the precautionary principle is ultimately about saving life, Cheney has made it all about unstoppable killing.

On that happy note, Vicki and I went to go see An Inconvenient Truth - me for the second time, her for the first. Once again, I can't emphasize how great this movie is. You all need to go see it - c'mon, help put it over Bowling for Columbine!